This invention generally relates to welding controllers and, more specifically, to a multiple sequence welding controller having the capability of controlling three separate welding machines and peripheral machinery.
A variety of welding controllers are currently in use. Most commercially available welding controllers include a welding sequence controller that is housed within a single box. A separate programming logic controller is typically housed in a separate box. These two boxes, along with other input/output interfaces, are typically mounted within a rack assembly. Such rack assemblies require hard wiring interconnections between the various boxes or, alternatively, require backplane connections between the distinct boxes.
Significant economical disadvantages are presented by such conventional systems. The amount of hard wiring required increases material costs. Moreover, specific designs must be generated for each individual application in order to ensure that the appropriate hard wiring connections are made. In addition to the economical disadvantages, performance is less than optimum when using a conventional rack-based system. The hard wiring or backplane connections introduce the potential for creating undesirable electrical noise and greatly reduce the speed of processing signals and signal propagation speed. Accordingly, those skilled in the art have attempted to improve the technology.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,419 represents one such advancement. That patent discusses a programmable welding controller that incorporates a weld machine controller and a peripheral machine controller into a single unit. There are at least two commercially available devices that incorporate a welding machine controller and a peripheral machine controller into a single unit. One such device is essentially a rack-mounted system, which therefore includes a plurality of hard wiring connections. Accordingly, this system includes some of the drawbacks discussed above.
Another system that is commercially available includes a single welding controller and peripheral machine controller mounted on a single printed circuit board. While this device avoids some of the hard wiring and mechanical connection drawbacks discussed above, it is desirable to provide a controller that has the capability of controlling a plurality of welding machines. The current state of the art is only capable of controlling one welding machine per controller unit.
This invention provides a single unit welding controller that is capable of controlling three separate welding machines. The controller designed according to this invention also has the capability of controlling peripheral machinery. Significant cost savings are provided by a system designed according to this invention along with greatly enhanced performance due to the elimination of signal noise and greatly enhanced signal processing speed.